Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 15 Thousand Star City

The long azure blue river runs through the sky, splashing out extremely brilliant and magnificent brilliance.

The layout of Thousand Star City.

With a straight giant tower as the center, the other buildings spread out into the distance.

In the center of this magnificent tower, there is a brilliant beam of light that penetrates the sky. When it reaches the top, the beam turns into a rain of light that pours down, forming a hemispherical light curtain that covers the entire city and isolates it from the abyss.

The essence of the "hemispherical light curtain" is a very advanced iterative firewall that isolates memetic viruses and malicious programs, greatly reducing the harm of the [Abyss].

On the city streets.

Song Shi stood up and calmed the soul that had fallen into the [Abyss] and was impacted by psychic energy.

Because of the existence of psychic energy, the [Abyss] cannot be viewed as just a "domain".

It is also a "redundant psychic aggregate" formed by countless negative emotions that accumulate day after day.

If a person wants to dive into the [abyss], he not only needs to face technical problems such as memetic viruses, crazy artificial intelligence, malicious programs, etc. left over from the past, but also has to face the impact and oppression of "redundant psychic energy".

Both problems are equally fatal.

There is no need to mention the former, as the latter targets the soul. Once it can't bear it, it may have mental problems at the very least, and become dementia at the worst - and the worst is that due to the corruption of these redundant spiritual energies, the real body becomes a deformed monster.

Therefore.

The [abyss] outside the [domain firewall] is divided into areas based on the degree of diving.

Generally speaking, the greater the depth, the greater the danger, but also the greater the opportunities that come with it.

The most typical example is "technology". The Seven Lands War caused huge amounts of technical data to sink into the [abyss]. After so many years, these things should have been outdated, but the existence of artificial intelligence changed everything.

Many of the AIs that hid in the Abyss and fell into madness were originally scientific research-oriented. They have been evolving and analyzing technical data over the years. Perhaps most of their products are still not good enough, but there are always some that can be used.

There are even some people who have salvaged technologies that can be called "black box" level, even giant companies cannot understand the principles, but only know the effects.

In this era, "technology" is wealth and "technology" is power.

The [Thousand Star City] is located in the [Abyss] area at Depth 1.

······
Under the endless glass scenery, there is a city that seems to be randomly stacked with building blocks, without any planning, and is ups and downs.

Song Shi looked up.

Without the constraints of physical laws, the appearance of the buildings here depends only on imagination - although in order to avoid wasting computing power in such a meaningless place, [Thousand Star City] does not allow too much arbitrary construction, but the surroundings are still a wonder.

From a distance, a brass steam airship was suspended in the air, black smoke was constantly coming out of the exhaust pipe, and the wingsail was expanding in the wind.

Looking back, not far away, there was a flickering fire in the window of a craftsman's shop surrounded by lava, as if a blacksmith was forging iron day and night, but a sign on the side indicated that this was just an online bar.

On the other side of the artisan shop, on the huge rotating conveyor belt, what is placed is not conveyor belt sushi, but three-dimensional projections and price tags of various weapons.

But there are more pedestrians in a hurry.

In the state of "virtual reality", the information people receive will be transformed into scenes close to reality, which is easy to understand and prevents the mind from being directly overwhelmed by Internet information.

The faces of many people here are blurry.

The concrete manifestation of "anonymous service" is that everyone's appearance is blurred - this is the foundation of Thousand Star City as a trading community. They automatically provide anonymous services, including but not limited to IP addresses and personal identity information.

Of course, if an individual wishes, they can also show their real face or a molded face.

The next step is to find an intelligence dealer and purchase some equipment.
"——Hey! My friend, are you interested in chatting?"

For Song Shi, Qianxing City was already familiar to him. While he was thinking about what to do next and was about to take action, a voice suddenly interrupted him.

"Hey! Friend! There's no one else here! I'm talking to you!"

A man wearing a brown felt hat appeared out of nowhere. He patted his double-breasted jacket, saluted in a pretentious manner, and then extended his right hand towards Song Shi.

The other party did not choose to blur his face, revealing a face of a man in his early twenties, with brown eyes, a high nose bridge, deep facial features, and a round face - a standard Nord appearance.

Although there are "anonymous services" to hide information, and appearance and voice can be customized at will within the domain, since the other party has a male voice and appearance, he can be treated as a male.

Song Shi looked at the other person and did not shake hands.

Seeing this, the man in the felt hat was not surprised and smiled and withdrew his hand:
"Hey, my friend, is this your first time here?"

"Ok?"

Song Shi raised his eyebrows.

"Don't make that expression."

The man in the felt hat raised his index finger and pointed upwards: "By the way, you should know where this place is, right?"

"Thousand Star City."

"Oh, so you knew."

Hearing this, the man in the felt hat seemed a little regretful, and then he said: "You know? Qianxing City's anonymous service is not omnipotent. Sometimes, some trivial things may expose a person's true identity." "I have seen many such examples, which is really regrettable." The man in the felt hat sighed: "My friend, you don't want people to know your true identity, right?"

"Ok?"

Song Shi raised his eyebrows: "What do you mean?"

"Friend! My good friend! That is why I have come!"

The man in the felt hat clapped his hands vigorously and smiled brightly:

"I can explain to you the rules of Thousand Star City, the techniques to avoid mistakes, and the situation of this place. For example, don't you want to know how I know you are a newcomer?"

"Oh, so it's a new instructor——"

Song Shi showed a look of realization and said sincerely, "Great, this is exactly what I need! What do you want? Money?"

"Oh my, that's too formal. We shouldn't talk about these things among friends—four thousand credits!"

The man in the felt hat raised two fingers and said seriously, "But it's not really 'four thousand credits'. My friend, let me teach you a rule first."

"Since you've come to Thousand Star City, you should know what this place is about. I can tell you clearly that most transactions here don't require credit points, or in other words, they are not paid directly with credit points."

The man in the felt hat turned his wrist and took out a card that looked like a "credit card".

“Have you heard of digital currency?”

Of course Song Shi knew what this was.

Virtual currency that is created by encrypting decentralized blockchain data and using cryptography technology to ensure security and immutability is called "digital currency."

Simply put, this thing is an illegal currency.

Although it is essentially a string of encrypted data codes, it is often used in black transactions due to its high recognition, which facilitates tax and risk avoidance.

"It doesn't matter if you don't have it. There is an exchange here that can help you exchange your credit points for digital currency. Don't worry, I have used it several times. It is very safe. It only charges a 5% handling fee."

The man in the felt hat smiled more and more brightly: "The exchange provides an 'anonymous transfer platform'. Our credit points are like a black box. Both parties just need to reach in and take it. They will never know the identity of the other party from beginning to end."

"That is, as long as I pay you four thousand credits."

Song Shi nodded repeatedly and also laughed: "I can know how to use the timer to confirm whether it is a newcomer. Maybe you can give me a timer program for free?"

"Yeah, yeah. Uh?" The man in the felt hat's smile froze.

"No matter what sacred cloak it is covered with, 'Thousand Star City' is essentially still a network domain. Technically speaking, everyone who comes here will register for a 'temporary pass'. Thousand Star City will directly help us with these. This is to facilitate network domain management, so many people don't know, and there is no need to know."

“But since it is a registration, it requires registration time.”

"For first-time visitors, Qianxing City needs to go through a series of complex verifications and upload data before registering a 'temporary pass' for them. For visitors who are not first-time visitors, the above steps can be avoided and they can register directly."

"Of course, compared to the huge computing power of Thousand Star City, the difference in time between the two is negligible, only about 0.15 seconds, which is difficult for humans to distinguish - but the meticulous timing program is different."

"It is also for the convenience of management. Each Thousand Star City has only a few entrance areas."

Song Shi tapped his feet and said, "You squat in this entrance area and use the timer to record the appearance time of each person's "stand-in program". Then compare the result with the average time. As long as the expected deviation is too large, you can be sure that the other party is a newcomer and you can come up and try to make a fortune."

[Avatar program] is the body that people use when they surf the Internet virtually.

"After all, there are many green users who accidentally fell into Thousand Star City because of opening and clicking on some strange things."

Song Shi laughed: "It would be fine if they have heard of the name 'Thousand Star City' before, but if not, as long as they report that this place is located in the 'Abyss' and threaten them, they will definitely be able to extort money."

"Oh, in an anonymous community, there is almost no risk, and it is still a business with no capital."

For many people, the [Abyss] outside the [Internet Domain Firewall] is something they have only heard of in official announcements and some forums, where some rumors are hard to tell whether they are true or false. But without exception, all of them mention that the [Abyss] represents great danger.

Therefore, many people regard the Abyss as a terrifying place that devours people at will. If they suddenly find themselves falling into it, they will inevitably panic.

Just a few threats and you can basically squeeze some money out of it.

Of course, if you really meet a young and inexperienced person or a poor and stingy person, you can only consider yourself unlucky.

"Oh my, so that's how it is. I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot—"

The man in the felt hat raised his hands over his shoulders, as if he had suddenly realized something.

"Hey! I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do, so let's meet again another day."

"Hey, that's not what friends say."

Song Shi was quick-witted and quick-handed, and he grabbed the person who was trying to escape, speaking in a friendly tone.

"My friend—"

"Don't tell me, I really want to ask you something about this place."

(End of this chapter)